Pullrite 4400

[Dixie_Flyer]

Just bought a Montana fifth wheel and the dealer made me a great buy on a Pullrite 4400 hitch. He said someone ordered it and never came back to get it so he cut the price by $800.00.

I started during research on the pros and cons of the hitch and talked with someone who owned one. The biggest problem I have come across is hooking up at an angle. There is ten degrees angle that is the maximum you can be in order to get properly hitched, outside of ten degrees the hitch won't lock.

Anyone out there that has a Pullrite hitch? If so what do you think of the product?

[DSteiner51]

Great! Now get out camping! 🙂

[Dixie_Flyer]

After hooking and unhooking a few times I am getting used to the Pullrite hitch and I love it. Once you understand the procedure it is easy. I cannot see the hitch from the drivers seat so I got two magnetic poles from Camping World that you put one of the pin box and the other on the hitch plate, line them up and back into the hitch, just that simple.

[EddieZ]

Hi that sounds about right you have to be in line when hooking up as well as unhooking. Took me a while to get the hang of it. 10 degrees is not much room for error. Superglide / Cougar 327

[Dixie_Flyer]

I am hopeful that with a little use and practice it will get easier. To unhook I raise the pin box on the camper until I see the catch plate starting to lift off the hitch plate. That seemed to work for me. Maybe next time I am on a down hill slope I will try your suggestion of letting the landing gear down until it just begins to lift weight off the hitch plate. Its a learn as you go kind of deal.

[DSteiner51]

Richard, I found that once I had the wheels chocked and front jacks down just enough to almost unload the truck I put the truck in reverse (auto trans) with engine idling, it will take the tension off the latch. I did it just this Tuesday and purposely ...since this thread... checked if it would unlatch and latch using just my little finger on my right hand.

Almost couldn't but it came! When I went to hook up it hooked up again no problem. I didn't measure how much the front was lower but I will guess at least a foot. The hitch plate on the truck rocked back was nearly parallel with the pin box capture plate and the tailgate was nearly hitting the underside of the fifth wheel.

[Dixie_Flyer]

I was successful today with hooking up and unhooking the camper with the Pullrite Superslide. I down loaded the manual and followed step by step the outlined procedure of hooking up and it worked the first time. Then I pulled the camper down the road and back home, Tried to unhook in unlevel ground, didn't work. Pulled it up on the driveway and unhooked without any trouble. So I concluded the camper must be pretty level to hook and unhook:?:(

[Don___Barb_Bogu]

We found that our pull rite jammed up and wouldn't hook up, when the front tires on the truck were about two feet lower than the back tires. I lowered the pin to just above the hitch. removed the pins holding the top section of the hitch, picked it up and slid it on the pin. Lowered the front legs on the 5er adjusted front and back with the truck until I could drop the hitch and insert pins. This process took about a very frustrating 45 min. A small up or down grade sloop doesn't seem to bother us just a sever one....

[azrving]

Raise stabilizers, step, etc and be sure rig is ready.

Drivers widow open.

DW watching and I can see her in mirror and hear her.

Check that hitch handle is out.

Adjust landing gear to eye ball the pin height

Back into it and see where it contacts

Adjust height so it just slightly loads the hitch, dont want a lot of friction, just slight contact. Always want contact so you are not high.

If I'm misaligned to one side the hitch will want to twist so I sometimes have to drive forward and realign.

Back in slowly until I hear the clunk. When you are hooked up look at where the pin plate is situated in comparison to the hitch plate so you develop an idea of be properly aligned.

Check that the handle is all the way in and locked. Install my handle padlock and be sure handle cant be pulled out.

Look at the rear of hitch. I painted the jaw red.

Connect cables. Leave gate down.

Raise landing gear until an inch or 2 off the ground.

Hold manual brake control all the way on and tug test the hitch. This isn't mandatory but after reading of dropped rigs I know 100% that I started out good. If anything happened to the hitch after that there is no second guessing what went wrong. I know it wasn't me.

Finish raising the LG and finish check list.

As you do all of this show DW what you are doing and what to watch out for. 4 eyes and 2 brains are better. My dw now knows when it's too high or low, misaligned etc. When she says stop it's not right I get out and look and then proceed.

[DSteiner51]

Simple. Raise or lower the pin height just below the hitch height, align truck with camper and slowly back into pin allowing it to slightly load the truck as it slides in. I see some folks hit the pin much harder then I think necessary. Mine usually slides in nice and smooth then a clunk sound as the latch slides around the pin.

[Dixie_Flyer]

Okay someone walk me through the procedure of hooking up with the Pullrite Superslide, Just how do you find that sweet spot to close the jaws and lock them?

[azrving]

Dixie
You can get the download at Pullrites site. You will get used to the hitch. There's nothing wrong and I did the same thing at first. It's always because of pressure toward the rear where the jaw swings around. Dont put your fingers in there, use a screwdriver or something to trigger the mechanism and you will see it slam closed and notice how it wraps around the rear of the pin.

[Dixie_Flyer]

rjxj wrote:

Dixie Flyer wrote:
When I was not having success unhooking the camper from the truck the camper and truck was on a down hill incline. This morning I moved the unit to the driveway where it is level. Raised the pin box just high enough that I could tell it was not touching the hitch plate, put the truck in neutral and let it roll away from the camper and settle, put the truck in park walked back and pull the lever to release the pin from the hitch and it unlocked and released the pin. So I guess I will always have to find a campsite that is level and straight to be able to unhook and hook back up.

Anyway the truck is free from the camper so I can now look forward to the next episode. Thanks for all the help.

The main issue is that if the truck still has tension against the lock mechanism it wont release. They actually say that you want to have the truck pushing back slightly. This takes all the pressure off the rotating lock mechanism. The curved lock mechanism wraps around the rear of the pin so if the truck is pulling forward slightly the pin is being held against the lock and there is too much friction for the handle to release. As long as the rig is chocked appropriately for the incline it cant be parked. The pin just cant be tight toward the rear causing a bind on the lock mechanism. I say appropriately for the incline because I have been on a steep enough slope that I locked a chain through my wheels on both sides. No problem unhitching but just have to keep the pressure off the rear jaw.
You can park in un level areas, just cant have the pin pulled tight against the jaw.
This is what my owners manual says:

Page 11
WARNING
: Never perform any of the following actions while any part of a person is between the vehicle and the trailer.
1.
Once you have the trailer located and are ready to unhitch, (unhitching can only be accomplished when the truck and
trailer are aligned within 10 degrees of each other--see previous page), block the trailer wheels so it will not roll back
or forward. Back into the blocked trailer slightly and set the parking brake while you are still in gear. This action will
relieve pressure on the lock mechanism before attempting to release the latch mechanism.
2.
Lower the trailer jacks to the point of just touching the ground but do not raise the trailer at this point.
3.
Open the Lock Jaw Assembly by first lifting, then pulling the Release Handle towards you (see pgs. 10 & 11).
4.
Lower the trailer jacks until the bottom of the king pin box is almost free of the top of the Fifth Wheel Plate {A}. Make
certain that the bottom of the king pin is not so high that binding on the hitch Lock Catch would result.
5.
After lowering the truck’s tail gate, disconnect the trailer electrical cord and break-away switch cable, then pull
forward.
6.
As the king pin slides from the Fifth Wheel Plate, notice that the locking mechanism remains open once the king pin is
removed

Thanks for the instructions for the Pullrite. Camping World failed to give me any papers on the hitch,

[azrving]

Dixie Flyer wrote:
When I was not having success unhooking the camper from the truck the camper and truck was on a down hill incline. This morning I moved the unit to the driveway where it is level. Raised the pin box just high enough that I could tell it was not touching the hitch plate, put the truck in neutral and let it roll away from the camper and settle, put the truck in park walked back and pull the lever to release the pin from the hitch and it unlocked and released the pin. So I guess I will always have to find a campsite that is level and straight to be able to unhook and hook back up.

Anyway the truck is free from the camper so I can now look forward to the next episode. Thanks for all the help.

The main issue is that if the truck still has tension against the lock mechanism it wont release. They actually say that you want to have the truck pushing back slightly. This takes all the pressure off the rotating lock mechanism. The curved lock mechanism wraps around the rear of the pin so if the truck is pulling forward slightly the pin is being held against the lock and there is too much friction for the handle to release. As long as the rig is chocked appropriately for the incline it cant be parked. The pin just cant be tight toward the rear causing a bind on the lock mechanism. I say appropriately for the incline because I have been on a steep enough slope that I locked a chain through my wheels on both sides. No problem unhitching but just have to keep the pressure off the rear jaw.
You can park in un level areas, just cant have the pin pulled tight against the jaw.
This is what my owners manual says:

Page 11
WARNING
: Never perform any of the following actions while any part of a person is between the vehicle and the trailer.
1.
Once you have the trailer located and are ready to unhitch, (unhitching can only be accomplished when the truck and
trailer are aligned within 10 degrees of each other--see previous page), block the trailer wheels so it will not roll back
or forward. Back into the blocked trailer slightly and set the parking brake while you are still in gear. This action will
relieve pressure on the lock mechanism before attempting to release the latch mechanism.
2.
Lower the trailer jacks to the point of just touching the ground but do not raise the trailer at this point.
3.
Open the Lock Jaw Assembly by first lifting, then pulling the Release Handle towards you (see pgs. 10 & 11).
4.
Lower the trailer jacks until the bottom of the king pin box is almost free of the top of the Fifth Wheel Plate {A}. Make
certain that the bottom of the king pin is not so high that binding on the hitch Lock Catch would result.
5.
After lowering the truck’s tail gate, disconnect the trailer electrical cord and break-away switch cable, then pull
forward.
6.
As the king pin slides from the Fifth Wheel Plate, notice that the locking mechanism remains open once the king pin is
removed

[alboy]

Could be the adjustment on the jaw is too tight?